Motif of the Moon
by fringeperson
Summary: There was a reason why those crescent moons were so prolific around the shop, even though Yuko's symbol was the butterfly. It has to do with the person who built it for her. oneshot, complete, don't own, SessKag, Kagome-is-Yuko.


Ichihara Yuko opened her eyes slowly as she woke. Not because she was hung over, but because of the dream she had experienced just before waking.

"So, it is that time again," she said to herself, then rose from her bed and made herself ready for the day. Carefully, thoroughly, she washed herself and then drew on a modest, traditional kimono of white silk with red butterflies over one shoulder, at the bottom of her furisode sleeves, and around the hem. Her obi was gold, with a large butterfly knot at the back, and a blue chord around the middle to hold everything in place. She combed her hair and left it loose, and fetched out the best tea set from the cupboard, as well as the very finest jasmine tea that she kept just for the guest who would be visiting her today.

"Maru, Moro," she called.

"Yes Mistress?" the two girls chorused in answer, running up to her.

"Go and change," Yuko instructed. "Your special kimonos."

"Yes Mistress," they answered, and then ran off again to do as they had been bid.

Yuko watched them go for a moment, then turned to her dressing table and reached for a plain, white box, lifting the lid back on its hinges to reveal the two ornaments that rested on the red silk cushion within. Hanging from a chord of magenta silk was a blue crescent moon, a symbol that many associated with her as readily as the butterflies. This, Yuko slipped into her obi, so that it hung down over the gold fabric and blue chord and the moon rested just below on the white silk of her kimono. The other ornament went around her neck.

Now that she was ready herself, Yuko moved around her house, the shop, and opened the shoji screens, airing the place out. Her guest didn't care for the smell of the herbs that she smoked. In all honesty, she hadn't cared for it much either when she had first been taught the uses of hallucinogens in aiding the Sight of the Inner Eye, but she had gotten used to it by now, just as she had sake, for the same reason. It was strange the things that helped her see more clearly were things that were known for clouding the vision of others.

"Yuko? What's going on?"

Yuko looked down at where the Mokona standing by her tabi-clad foot. That's right, today she was wearing tabi rather than stockings. Poor Watanuki likely had no idea that she owned something as plain as tabi.

"I'm expecting a guest today," she answered the little black puff-ball.

"A customer?" Mokona asked.

Yuko shook her head. "A guest. The last time I saw him... I think you had only just gone to sleep in my ware house the last time he came to visit," she said absently, bending to pat the little guy before moving on.

Yuko set Maru and Moro to sweeping and mopping once they reappeared in their kimono, carefully of course, since she didn't want them to ruin their clothes, and once the room she would hold the tea ceremony in was cleaned Yuko began her preparations. The flower arrangement, the choice of cushions, the choice of table for that matter, and setting out everything that would be used when the time came.

"What's all this?"

Yuko looked up from the flower arrangement – she always saved doing that until last, because it always took the longest to get _just right_ – to see her part-timer, Watanuki, looking around himself in confusion.

"I am getting ready," she answered him without explaining anything. "Watanuki, please go to the butcher – not the store but the butcher, they have a different quality of meat – and purchase the steak recommended to you by the head butcher as their very best cut. Just one. When you bring it back here, don't cook it. Just lay it on a plate and bring it in here."

Watanuki grumbled, but took some of the cash that Yuko kept in a jar for food expenses and went to do as he was told. He returned just in time to see Yuko set the finished floral arrangement in its place.

"Good, you're in time," she said, and there seemed to be some real, genuine relief in her voice, which confused Watanuki no end. After all, since when did Yuko ever get nervous? "Quickly," she instructed, clapping her hands at him.

Watanuki fetched a plate for the raw steak and set the meat where Yuko pointed for him to, then watched in surprise as Maru and Moro knelt politely and sat, straight backed, and just watched the door behind him.

Yuko also took a seat on one of the cushions she had set out, and sat with her back straight, eyes very focused. "Get the front door, would you Watanuki?" she asked after a few moments.

The teen eyed his boss, who was acting _very_ weird, but went to do as he was bid. Opening the front door of the shop, he saw a man in a sharp black business suit, with carefully combed short black hair standing at the fence. When he walked through the gate however, the suit vanished, replaced with white hakama and kimono with red sections at the bottom of the long sleeves and over one shoulder, hexagons with sakura blossoms scattered here and there, and a large fur over one shoulder and trailing behind him. The man was also wearing armour and two swords. The short black hair was replaced with a fall of white locks, and markings had appeared on his face. It also looked like his nails had gotten longer, and there were marks on his wrists like the ones on his cheeks.

"Are," Watanuki stuttered in awe and some degree of shock at what he was seeing walking towards him. "Are you a customer?" he asked.

The man snorted. "No," he said shortly as he walked right past the boy and through the building as though he knew exactly where he was going.

Watanuki closed the front door and followed behind the strange, white-clad man until he stood in front of the door to the room where Yuko was waiting.

A golden eye flicked back at Watanuki with impatience. Watanuki jumped when he saw that it was golden. He was sure it had just been a normal brown before. He jumped again when he realised that this strange man was waiting for him to open the door for him.

The strange man stepped through the opened door and moved straight to the cushion that was opposite Yuko's at the tea table.

"Miko," the strange man said.

"My Lord," Yuko answered.

"What is your name?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Ichihara Yuko," she replied, as though in a trance.

"When were you born?" he continued, a frown on his face.

Watanuki cocked his head, wondering what was going on that this strange man walked into Yuko's shop, then proceeded to ask _her_ the same questions that she had asked _him_ and scolded him for answering.

"I forget," she answered, and it sounds from the tone of her voice as though this is true.

"What is _my_ name?" the man asked with a growl.

"My Lord of the Western Lands," she replied, and kowtowed to him, Maru and Moro echoing the action behind her. "You are Sesshoumaru-sama. Please my Lord, what is my name?"

The now-named man turned his head to pin Watanuki with his golden gaze again. "Out," he instructed. "Do not listen."

Watanuki hurried out. There was something dangerous about that man.

Sesshoumaru turned back to the Time-Space Witch. "You are Kagome Higurashi, you were born on the twenty-fourth of September, in the year 1982. Your birth will come to pass _today_, Miko."

Yuko, Kagome, blinked her wide brown eyes in surprise. "I had forgotten," she said. "Has it been so long already?" she asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded solemnly. "This Sesshoumaru has visited you every fifty years since the Tama about your neck trapped you in an era you were not born to. This Sesshoumaru finds it amusing that the small palace he ordered built for you has remained unchanged in all this time."

"The kitchen is changed," Yuko, Kagome, protested softly.

"Begin the ceremony," Sesshoumaru said, gesturing to the things that she had set out prior to his arrival.

When the ceremony was complete, the tea was gone, and Sesshoumaru had eaten the raw steak that Watanuki had fetched on his boss's orders, the great demon stood and looked down at the woman that had once been the girl who followed his ignorant half-brother around nipon.

"This Sesshoumaru built this place for you, Higurashi Kagome, and you have kept it well. It has kept _you_ well, also. This Sesshoumaru sees clearly that you have kept his symbol in place of pride through the building. Have you considered the offer made to you by this one the last time he came here?"

Yuko smiled a little, and it reached and warmed her brown eyes. "I have," she answered, and stood also.

Sesshoumaru turned and opened a shoji screen, bringing the garden into view. He stepped out onto the raised walkway silently, and silently, she followed him.

"Do you have an answer?" Sesshoumaru pressed.

"I do," she agreed, "and I wish to accept."

"Good," Sesshoumaru said, turning to face her and closing some of the distance between them, as she had followed a few paces behind him. "This Sesshoumaru knows that you are too good-hearted to simply leave behind those here under your care however, and will grant you five years to resolve matters to your satisfaction. _Then_ this Sesshoumaru will come for you. Weave your illusions and say your farewells. In five years, you will be Lady of the West. Such a station is far more suited to you than mere shop-owner, even if the shop sells selfish human wishes."

Yuko, Kagome, smiled. She rocked up on her toes – for Sesshoumaru was still taller than her, even though she had grown – and brushed her lips softly over the demon lord's cheek. "Always so sweet," she said and she set herself back and just enjoyed looking at his face. "Always so careful to hide that sweetness."

Sesshoumaru grasped the back of her neck in a flash of movement and growled as he claimed her lips with his own.

Yuko's hands came up to grasp at Sesshoumaru's armour, the first thing that came to hand, because she simply had to hold onto _something_, or she was convinced she would fall, and with the way the world seemed to have disappeared, that would leave her falling for a very long time.

"Miko," he growled when he let her breathe again, his clawed hand still around the back of her neck and his forehead resting against her own. "You, and our pups, will be the only ones to ever see this Sesshoumaru as anything other than completely ruthless. You will not undermine his power."

Kagome nodded once, slowly, and then gave herself up to another kiss from the example of male perfection that had, for some unfathomable reason, decided he wanted _her_ for his Lady.

He left after that, and Yuko set herself to plotting the illusions she would have to weave around herself and the shop so that she could disappear. Of course, she'd have to sort out Watanuki's debt before she left. It wouldn't do to leave a wish, a contract, unfulfilled after all.

~The End~


End file.
